Saturday, March 14, 2009

These answers were taken from a student assignment. This student is working with a client and helping her with some lifestyle changes that will improve her health. I added the following suggestions after her suggestions. The student suggestions are in regular font. Mine are in bold italics:

8-10 glasses of water a day (promotes flushing out toxins, body 80% water, helps with snacking and can help avoid the junkaholic time).

6-8 should be fine. Tell her to monitor. Drink the 8. If she feels ill drinking more then the 8 was enough. Recent studies are showing that too much water can hurt people’s ability to digest or absorb certain foods. If she is thin she may not need the 10 glasses.

Eat 5-10 servings of vegetables a day

However, be sure to tell her that even 3 or 4 is great. Sometimes if we set the bar too high for a client they will become discouraged very quickly. You might want to start her on a less intense program first and then lead her into something more intense. The advantage of this is that you can also monitor her response to your “first level” of suggestions and modify the final program even more to suit her needs.

A student who turned in her assignment for the Nutritional Healing Course today provided a wonderful client history for her client. It had all the details she needed to give the client the good advice they need. I included the following reminder for her that I wanted to share with other students as well - it may be helpful to you in working with your own clients, friends and family members:

Very good client history. You have a lot of details here to work with that can really give you some good clues and direction with her situation. I always especially mark or highlight things that the client says, ‘I sense this is bad for me” or “I feel badly after eating or drinking these”. The reason I highlight these things is that this is a clue as to where a good place to start with this client is. The biggest obstacle to overcome with healing is the clients willingness or readiness to change. If they have already noticed something is harming them then THAT is the area they will most likely be open to changing.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Aimee turned in her Nutritional healing assignments this week and was the first one (in all these years, believe it or not!) to choose "Creating a Healing Living Space" as her topic for the "Thirteenth Principal of Health". I thought her opening quote and a key paragraph in her paper were wonderful and wanted to share them with you all:She writes:

Siegfried Gursche, in the Encyclopedia of Natural Healing, quotes: “According to the Environmental Protection Agency, fifty percent of all our illness can be traced to indoor pollution, which is ten times more toxic than its outdoor counterpart.”

Our dishes, pipes, microwaves, pewter, ceramic glazes, blinds, tap water, and insecticides also contribute to our indoor toxicity. Nickle is in our dishes, cosmetics, hydrogenated food, fats, and dental work. Lead can come from batteries, tap water, smoking, glassware, liver, and even in some wine. Cadmium is found in batteries, smoking tap water, fertilizer, and shellfish. Arsenic in laundry soap, fabric softener, poisons paints and even in some mirrors. Aluminum which is linked with Alzheimer's is in our cooking wrap, deodorants, cosmetics, paints, and baking powder. Mercury was a popular dental filling which is no longer used in Canada. It also turns up in fish, salt, cosmetics, hair dyes, and pesticides. All heavy metals can have a horrible effect on the body. The are know to create rashes, constipation, headaches, bloating, diarrhea, block the production of bile, increase of decrease hormone levels, and affect our digestive systems.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

This is not really a course correction as much as an "alert" - this is something to be aware of as you do this unit. Please read the student comment and my reply below - this will help you understand the temperament unit better:

Student Comment:This unit on typology has been overwhelming, yet very enlightening for me. During my college years and experience teaching English and History, I have encountered the concepts discussed in this unit viz., humor, temperament, melancholic, choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic etc.---but I never understood these terms in their complete historical and medical sense until now. I encountered the most trouble when trying to understand exactly what is a humor and how does it function in the body. The assigned readings were confusing and oftentimes contradicting regarding this matter…

My Reply: One of the reasons I provide different perspectives – even if they are contradicting, is to give people more than one angle on the same topic. I do that on purpose. However, the main lesson is consistent and informational and should provide you with a good base. The introduction to the unit provides an overview of the basics. The other lessons are extras to that – so the reading of the literature was to introduce some “spice” into a topic once the student already understands the temperaments. Note to students reading this: keep this in mind when reading this unit!

Correcting student tests today I was impressed with this list included by a student in her test for the Temperament & Typology Unit:

The following are diseases which are not caused by an imbalance of the 4 humors:A. Improperly shaped organsB. Narrow or expanded ductsC. Irregular tissue within or without organs (rough uterine-wall tissue)D. Excessive organ size (enlarged heart)E. Displaced organs (transposed liver)F. Small organs (stomach)G. Conditions arising from occasional causes (poisonous animals and insects)H. Accidents, such as fractures, burns, wounds, and the like.